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After completing Cindered Shadows you unlock the Abyss library with lots of books in it that the church wouldn’t want you to see. Most of it fits fairly easily into established lore of Fodlan, with the exception of of one - “Romance of the World’s Perdition”. I think this might be the most important book there. It reads as follows:

“Romance of the World’s Perdition

“In the land of Thinis, where the old gods are said to live, the False God has awakened. Its looming, heteromorphic vessel was resurrected to sink the world to the depths of the ocean. It will bring extinction to all children of men, and salvation to all beasts of the land, sky, and sea. For the children of men who spilled too much of the blood of life, it promises only cruel retribution.

”the False God must be defeated before the world sinks into a watery grave. To this end, the children of men have erected pillars of light upon the land. Thinis, Malum, Septen and Llium were utterly destroyed. Those lands have vanished from this world. Yet even still, the False God stands. And soon, a flood aptly named Despair will drown this world.

”The children of men fled to the depths of the earth, beyond the sight of the False God, beyond the embrace of the sacred sun, and beyond the reach of the waters of Despair. They swore a fervent oath of revenge against the surface world, ruled by beasts, and against their tormentor, the False God.”

Ok, so there’s a lot in there and at first glance it doesn’t really seem relevant to Fodlan. There’s four lands; Thinis, Malum, Septen and Llium, that as far as I can see have never been mentioned in 3H or any other FE game. And they all got flooded. Curious.

Anyway, I reckon that this might actually be an origin story for Fodlan, and for Abyss. There’s a couple of things that stand out yo support this theory. First is the “heteromorphic vessel” of the False God. “Heteromorphic” means “occurring in two or more different forms, especially at different stages in the life cycle.” - I reckon we’re talking about Sothis here, and her ability to switch between dragon and human form. The second is the last paragraph - if the False God is Sothis, then it becomes clear that this is an origin for the Slitherers, who existed before Sothis and created Abyss to escape the flood that she created.

The third is the mention of pillars of light in the second paragraph, which were created to defeat the False God. It’s pretty clear that these must be proto-javelins of light. If all this was to pan true, it would mean that those lands mentioned either used to be Fodlan or are currently under the ocean around Fodlan. This book was clearly written by Slitherers who were probably hiding out in Abyss at the time, but I don’t think it’s propaganda per say. If it was, why use a bunch of old names that no one would understand?

Anyway, having established that this book is about the origins of Fodlan, it has some pretty interesting implications. 1. Sothis was originally resurrected - who was she before? 2. Who were the old gods, other dragons? 3. Why did Sothis go all Old Testament? 4. It gives us an actual motivation for the Slitherers to hate the church and 5. Humanity existed before Sothis came about (or at least, was resurrected). I also wonder if this perhaps has implications for connecting 3H to the rest of the series.

Anyway, maybe the true villain isn’t Rhea or Edelgard, but Sothis for committing genocide which pushed the mole people to seek revenge over generations.

EDIT: Duchess of Strasbourg on the r/FireEmblem discord made some interesting notes about the etymology of some of the names:

Septen: Septentrional means "of the north", also used for stars of the Big Dipper

Thinis: Capital of the first Egyptian Dynasties

Malum: Latin for "bad"

Llium: Could be Illium/Ilion, the old name for the City of Troy i.e. the Trojans

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Wait a minute....if Sothis was resurrected and is similar in appearance to Tiki, that could mean that she's either Naga incarnate or Naga had another child who was casted away. This is just a theory, I'm just shooting in the dark.

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Didn’t they say that Sothis had to stop the argathans who had abused her gifts and then she slept to heal the world and nemesis killed her at some point here.

Iirc it was her own people, the Nabateans, who she warred against because they abused her gifts. Then when she went to sleep, the Agarthans took advantage of that and hatched their plot to kill Sothis.

I think the timeline must go something like this:

Agarthans live on the old lands, worshipping their gods.

Sothis is resurrected (by who?) and goes all Old Testament on the world (for an undisclosed reason?), Agarthans hide underground creating Abyss and swearing to take revenge against Sothis.

After the flooding recedes Sothis creates a new race of people to populate Fodlan, the Nabateans. Eventually they and/or the native humans start abusing Sothis’ gifts and go to war. More conjecture here, but I reckon the Agarthan’s probably manipulated certain actors etc in order to start the war, rather than actually participating themselves.

Sothis ends the war between the Nabateans but is greatly weakened. The Agarthans, who have been pulling the strings this whole time, take the chance to kill the regenerating Sothis by manipulating Nemesis and other humans.

And then the rest we’re all familiar with. Most of this is based off of a suspicion that Sothis didn’t actually create the Agarthans, unlike what some of the church material would suggest.

EDIT: I’m uncertain about this and it could be the case the flooding was part of the war. It’s incredibly hard to deduce the truth when everyone has their own version of history.

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We don't know who wrote this, when was this written, or how much primary source they have to begin with since it's called "romance" (like Romance of Three Kingdom, which takes extremely biased side of historical events), it could just be Agarthan mythology from a few thousand years of oral traditions.

Of course Agarthan mythology was going to blame the other side starting the war, yet all the Agarthan we know are manipulative people that use misinformation and deceptions, making their claim questionable at the best. It also oversimplify the cause of the war, simply claimed "human spilled too much blood." What does this even mean? Who's blood was spilled?

I think the key to solve the truth is if Byleth could fully recover Sothis' memory one day, if IniSys would continue expend Three Houses universe.

Rhea implied this is possible but without elaborating it. In the game we indeed see part of Sothis' memory in the opening cutscene (which was completely flashback from her memory fragments), and again in Red Canyon when Byleth picked up more memory from Sothis' life (but only in text form), then we never really revisit this topic.

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What I got from this along with the stuff we learn by Rhea is the following.

Sothis descends upon the world afar from Foldan from the sky (the star Sirius is my prediction as it is mentioned a lot). From her blood she creates her children and they share their powers with Humans advancing civilisation. Then she could possibly have gone to a sleep and during that time her children with the humans went to war over the abuse of her powers. So she awakens and starts flooding the world saving her children and during that time humans make what would evolve into the javelins of light, the pillars of light however they further damaged the world and she didn't die. Then she finally did flood the world killing all humans except those that hid in Shambala who sought revenge against her and her children. Then she restored balance to the world and created new humans (I think, please correct me if I am wrong) and fell into a deep slumber to restore her powers in the holy tomb and nearby, her original Dragon-like children built Nabatea and the story we know and love about Nemesis continues.

Whatever the case, I like that they gave Sothis some more spotlight even if it was this way. If the DLC had gone the Torna route and was about the War of Heroes then perhaps we would have learnt way more.

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What I got from this along with the stuff we learn by Rhea is the following.

Sothis descends upon the world afar from Foldan from the sky (the star Sirius is my prediction as it is mentioned a lot). From her blood she creates her children and they share their powers with Humans advancing civilisation. Then she could possibly have gone to a sleep and during that time her children with the humans went to war over the abuse of her powers. So she awakens and starts flooding the world saving her children and during that time humans make what would evolve into the javelins of light, the pillars of light however they further damaged the world and she didn't die. Then she finally did flood the world killing all humans except those that hid in Shambala who sought revenge against her and her children. Then she restored balance to the world and created new humans (I think, please correct me if I am wrong) and fell into a deep slumber to restore her powers in the holy tomb and nearby, her original Dragon-like children built Nabatea and the story we know and love about Nemesis continues.

Whatever the case, I like that they gave Sothis some more spotlight even if it was this way. If the DLC had gone the Torna route and was about the War of Heroes then perhaps we would have learnt way more.

I think this is pretty much correct. Adding in a couple things, I think the advanced civilisation created was known as Agartha. Thinis, Malum, Septen and Llium must have been Agarthan names for places in Fodlan.

We assume she went to war because the Agarthan’s abused their powers, but important to note that that is a church narrative. Could it be that instead, they started their own belief system as Sothis slept, worshipping different God’s, which is what made Sothis declare war? That would fit what is said in the Perdition book.

Now, thinking about the geography of Fodlan, a flood actually makes a lot of sense. If the Nabateans used Garreg Mach as a home base, it could survive a flood that takes the rest of Fodlan because it’s atop a mountain. The few surviving Agarthans also made a Homebase in those mountains to survive the flood - Abyss, and then presumably they move to Shambala later on.

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If what is said in this book is true, that completely changes what I thought I knew about this game and those you slither in the dark. This actually makes their motivations makes sense

if true, then maybe it is for the past if Sothis never recovers her memory, she could become a monster that would flood the world and commit mass genocide. Surely Rhea wouldn't intend for this will write with resurrecting her mother? But there is a chance of her being the person who resurrected Sothis in this text, which reveals a far more sinister nature than I knew. Strange, Sothis really doesn't come across as evil. Is that just because she doesn't have her memories?

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If what is said in this book is true, that completely changes what I thought I knew about this game and those you slither in the dark. This actually makes their motivations makes sense

if true, then maybe it is for the past if Sothis never recovers her memory, she could become a monster that would flood the world and commit mass genocide. Surely Rhea wouldn't intend for this will write with resurrecting her mother? But there is a chance of her being the person who resurrected Sothis in this text, which reveals a far more sinister nature than I knew. Strange, Sothis really doesn't come across as evil. Is that just because she doesn't have her memories?

The problem is Sothis nearly the fusion and after it seems to recover some, if not most of her memory (how much she shared with Byleth is up to debate, but she does address Byleth as part of herself in the end of the quote)

Yet her request to you is actually stop human from fighting and dying, which doesn't sound to me like a human hating goddess

Quote

You… How long do you intend to sleep? Your body is awake. Your eyes must open now, and you must find the strength to stand upon those legs of yours. Like so much rain, a pool of blood has fallen to the ground… As spears and arrows pierce the earth, it weeps. And even now…it weeps. In order to survive, they kill. And so, the people of this world are lost in an abyss of suffering. They weep as well. The only one who truly knows the nature of such things is I… Or rather, you.

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Maybe the Agarthians actually believed that they were innocent and Sothis was destroying them because of lulz. But as we have two contradicting versions of history, one from a source that is known for their lies and deception and one who seems not to be.... I bet my money that Sothis version is the correct one. After all in three Houses she never seem really to care if people worship her or not, so i find it hard to believe that that would be a reason to go angry goddess..... but slaugthering her children to (e.g.) harnest their magical power .... that is another story .....

But I am pretty sure that they left such kind of books laying around in the imperial palace for a certain someone to find ....

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Maybe the Agarthians actually believed that they were innocent and Sothis was destroying them because of lulz. But as we have two contradicting versions of history, one from a source that is known for their lies and deception and one who seems not to be.... I bet my money that Sothis version is the correct one. After all in three Houses she never seem really to care if people worship her or not, so i find it hard to believe that that would be a reason to go angry goddess..... but slaugthering her children to (e.g.) harnest their magical power .... that is another story .....

But I am pretty sure that they left such kind of books laying around in the imperial palace for a certain someone to find ....

Given that one of those sources is the church, who literally created a false history of the war 1000 years ago...I'm betting neither is true.

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Given that one of those sources is the church, who literally created a false history of the war 1000 years ago...I'm betting neither is true.

I was just going to say that, both factions actually have a history of lies and deceit

That being said, it is totally possible that Edelgard could have been fed a false version of events in order for Thales to propagate his war. I do also believe that those who slither in the dark has been deliberately spreading unrest in order to raise and the church sentiment. This is just a theory, but it is also why I think he assassinated King Lambert as his reforms would have actually fixed some of Fodlan's problems and would have undermined the need for the war, and that would be the last thing Thales wanted. Edelgard might have been manipulated into starting the war while believing it was her own idea. I don't think anyone has been more of a victim of Thales schemes than Edelgard

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Honestly the church edelgard and those who slitter in the dark all have a false history Rhea by her own admission was virtually a child when Nemesis killed her race so how could she really know everything edelgard is using a history told from emperors from the beginning of their empire for all we know Rhea never told them the truth behind why they were fighting nemesis and they also could have been influenced by those who slitter in the dark but The most important thing is that the empire and the church don't get along with each other they blame them for the kingdom and alliance so there's a good chance that one emperor just decided to change everything to spite them one day and those who slither in the dark the only thing we have for confirmation with them is nemesis was bandit

The only person alive who should know everything that's happened is Seteth realistically

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The only person alive who should know everything that's happened is Seteth realistically

Actually, Byleth themselves is the real answer. They are the only one that could inherit Sothis’ memory, the opening cutscene was a recall from her memory.

In fact both Red Canyon levels discussed about her lost memories, plus some between level dialogues, but they then dropped this sub arc and her memory was never mentioned again like everything else about Sothis.